The present invention relates to a control lever type input device, and in particular to a control lever type input device used for inputting coordinates in a navigation input device mounted in a vehicle.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a prior art control lever type input device.
In FIG. 11, reference numeral 1 is a box-shaped casing and 2 is a control lever. A spherical body 3 is disposed in the lower part of this control lever 2 and this spherical body 3 is engaged with a pivoting fulcrum 7 so that the control lever 2 is pivotable. Further two semicircular arc-shaped interlink plates (not shown in the figure) are mounted, crossed and superposed on each other, rotatable in the casing 1. A slit is formed in the longitudinal direction in each of the interlink plates and an extremity of the control lever 2 passes through the superposed part of these slits so as to be engaged therewith. 4 represents a pair of variable resistors mounted on two side walls adjacent to each other of the casing 1. The rotating shaft of each of these variable resistors 4, 4 is engaged with an interlink hole formed at an end of the respective interlink plate so that the plurality of resistors 4, 4 can be regulated simultaneously through the interlink plates. 6 is a switch, which is a rotary type switch incorporated in the knob portion located at the upper extremity of the control lever 2. When this switch 6 is manipulated, e.g. a cursor, which moves on a display, is inputted by manipulating the control lever 2 so as to be inclined.
According to the prior art technique described above, since the rotary type switch 6 was incorporated in the knob portion of the control lever 2, the knob portion was large and it looked bad in the aspect. Further, for wiring the switch, leads should be soldered, passing through the control lever 2. Therefore the wiring was troublesome and the quality was unstable.